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The Public Theater Welcomes
Clubbed Thumb's
DEEP BLUE SOUND
By Abe Koogler
Directed by Arin Arbus
After last spring's sold-out run of GRIEF HOTEL, the beloved downtown theater company Clubbed Thumb is back with their Obie Award-winning DEEP BLUE SOUND for a limited engagement.
On an island in the Pacific Northwest, the community gathers to address the disappearance of the local orca pod. Friendships fray, tumors grow, new love blooms, wood is chopped, poems are written. The seasons change. Will the whales ever return?
Written by Abe Koogler (Kill Floor, Staff Meal) and directed by Arin Arbus (Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune), DEEP BLUE SOUND will once again feature Tony Award winner Maryann Plunkett, who won an Obie Award for "her transformative, fearless, empathetic turn" in this "devastatingly beautiful play" (2023 Obie Committee). The cast also features Arnie Burton, Crystal Finn, Jan Leslie Harding, Mia Katigbak, Ryan King, Armando Riesco, Miriam Silverman, and Carmen Zilles.
"I saw DEEP BLUE SOUND at Clubbed Thumb and as has often happened to me at Summerworks, I'm wrecked that something so perfect lasts for so short a time. I want this show to run forever (6 weeks?)...deep thanks, Abe Koogler, Arin Arbus, & a staggering cast.” - The New Yorker's Helen Shaw
Content and Production Effect Warning
Production effects and content sensitivities vary from person to person, please reach out to [email protected] if you have questions about this production. This production contains the use of fog.
Arnie Burton
John
Arnie Burton (John) Broadway: Machinal, Peter and the Starcatcher, The 39 Steps, A Free Man of Color, Amadeus. Off Bway highlights: Dracula, A Comedy of Terrors (Lortel nomination, featured actor), Lewiston/Clarkson (Drama Desk nomination, featured actor), The Government Inspector (Callaway Award), The Mystery of Irma Vep (Drama League nomination), The Tempermentals (Drama Desk Award ensemble), The New Yorkers (Encores), The Explorers Club (MTC), Lives of Saints, Mere Mortals (Primary Stages), Timon of Athens, The Winter's Tale, The Jew of Malta, The Merchant of Venice (TFANA), Tail!Spin!, The Last Sunday in June, Fairycakes. International: The Merchant of Venice (RSC). Film: The Greatest Showman, The Invention of Lying, Igby Goes Down, Game 6, The Private Lives of Pippa Lee. TV includes: "The Other Two" (recurring season 3), "Evil", "Jessica Jones", "Search Party", "New Murphy Brown", "Elementary", "The Good Fight", "Blacklist", "White Collar", "Flesh & Bone" (recurring), "Blue Bloods", "Frasier", "Law & Order", "L&O Criminal Intent", "Caroline in the City", "Sister Sister".
Crystal Finn
Mayor Annie
Crystal Finn (Mayor Annie) Also for Clubbed Thumb: Three iterations of Plano by Will Arbery, Usus, King Phillip’s Head…, 16 Words or Less, La Brea, Five Genocides. Other NY theater includes world premieres at Roundabout, Playwrights Horizons, PlayCo, WP, Fulcrum, The Pool, 59E59, MTC. Crystal made her Broadway debut in Birthday Candles, by Noah Haidle, for which she won a Theatre World Award. TV/Film: “Babes,” “Kinda Pregnant,” “The Tick”. Her own play Find Me Here was produced with Clubbed Thumb last summer for Summerworks and was directed by Caitlin Sullivan. Other plays include her solo show, Becoming Liv Ullmann, The Faire, and Ms. Lily, which was developed with Clubbed Thumb for their Directing Fellowship. Recently, Crystal made her debut as a storyteller performing at “The Moth MainStage” at Sony Hall, and at the McCarter Theater in Princeton.
Jan Leslie Harding
Les
Jan Leslie Harding (Les) was last seen Off-Broadway in the Deep Blue Sound at Clubbed Thumb and at The Kennedy Center (DC) in Wilderness with En Guard Arts, with whom she also participated in Reza Abdoh’s groundbreaking site-specific play Father was a Peculiar Man set in the Meatpacking District of NY, Wellman’s Strange Feet at the Smithsonian in DC and Crowbar at the New Victory. Jan Leslie is known for her collaborations with many masters of the Avant-Garde, most notably with Theodora Skipitarus and The Talking Band at La Mama, Richard Foreman at BAM, the Ontological Hysteric, and the Montreal Theatre Festival, and in many productions with Mac Wellman all over the country and abroad. She received an OBIE for her work in Wellman’s Sincerity Forever (BACA Downtown). Jan Leslie has participated in The Helsinki International Theatre Festival, the Whitney Biennial, is a longstanding member of the Ensemble Studio Theatre, and a founding member of the Flea.
Mia Katigbak
Joy Mead
Mia Katigbak (Joy Mead) NY: Uncle Vanya (Lincoln Center); The Headlands (LCT3); Annie Baker’s Infinite Life (Atlantic/National Theatre, London); Romeo and Juliet, Out of Time, Caryl Churchill’s What If If Only (US premiere), Henry VI (St. Clair Bayfield Award), Awake and Sing! (Obie Award) all with NAATCO (National Asian American Theatre Company); A Delicate Balance (Transport Group); Ivo van Hove’s Scenes from a Marriage (NYTW); Clubbed Thumb; Public Theater; Soho Rep; New Georges; WP; Ma-Yi; Target Margin. Regional: Two River Theater, Yale Rep, Long Wharf, Berkeley Rep, The Guthrie. TV: “How to Get Away With Murder,” “The Sinner,” “Chicago PD.” Awards: The Joan and Joseph F. Cullman Award for Extraordinary Creativity at Lincoln Center Theatre, USA Fellowship, TCG’s Fox Foundation Resident Actor Fellow for Distinguished Achievement, Special Drama Desk Award. Actor-Manager/Co-Founder of NAATCO. Education: BA, Barnard College; MA, Columbia University.
Ryan King
Gary
Ryan King (Gary) most recently appeared in Racecar, Racecar, Racecar (The Hearth) and Open Throat (Little Island). Some favorites: the world premiere of Duncan MacMillan’s Lungs (Studio Theater/Barrington Stage), Plano (Clubbed Thumb), The Intelligent Design of Jenny Chow (Atlantic Theater), Dying City (Hartford Stage), Eurydice (Second Stage), 33 Variations (La Jolla Playhouse). As a playwright, he was a member of The Clubbed Thumb Early Career Writers Group. He is also a screenwriter, including the recent films The Tutor on Netflix and Asphalt City, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in 2023. He attended the Yale School of Drama.
Maryann Plunkett
Ella
Maryann Plunkett (Ella) is a Tony, Obie, & Drama Desk Award-winning actress and, this year, she and her husband Jay O. Sanders were jointly awarded a “Special Citation for Lifetime Achievement” by the NY Drama Critics Circle. She has toured Europe, China, and Australia with Richard Nelson’s trilogy The Gabriel Family Plays which first premiered at NY’s Public Theatre and was televised on PBS. Prior to that, she spent five years with Nelson’s tetralogy The Apple Family Plays also at the Public, on tour, and televised on PBS, as well as the most recent of Richard Nelson’s Rhinebeck Panorama The Michaels. She is currently starring in the Broadway production of the new musical The Notebook for which she received a 2024 Tony Award nomination for “Best Actress in a Musical.” Other Broadway credits include Agnes of God, Sunday in the Park with George, Me and My Girl (Tony Award), The Crucible, St. Joan, A Man for All Seasons. Off-B’way: Juno & the Paycock and Plough in the Stars (Irish Rep O’Casey Festival), The Lucky Ones (Lortel Award nominee), Aristocrats, Rodney’s Wife, Shakespeare, Chekhov, Shaw, Theater of War. TV/film: ”New Amsterdam,” “Dr Death,” ”Manifest,” “Chicago Med,” “Bull,” “House of Cards,” “The Knick,” “Om City.” FILM credits: Fairhaven, The Family Fang, MAD, Youth in Oregon, Blue Valentine, A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood opposite Tom Hanks, Greta Gerwig’s Little Women, and Showing Up winner of a 2024 Spirit Award for “Best Ensemble.” Maryann is a proud member of SAG/Aftra & Actor’s Equity Association.
Armando Riesco
Chris
Armando Riesco (Chris) played the title character in the Elliot Trilogy, which includes the Pulitzer Prize-winning Water by the Spoonful (Lucille Lortel nomination - outstanding lead actor in a play). He has worked at 2nd Stage, Goodman Theater, Steppenwolf Theater, Hartford Stage, Victory Gardens, Wilma Theater, and others. IG @armandoriesco
Miriam Silverman
Mary
Miriam Silverman (Mary) won the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play for her critically-acclaimed performance as ‘Mavis’ in the Broadway production of The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window, as well as winning the 2023 Drama Desk Award for the same role at BAM. TV/ Film includes Breaking, "Dead Ringers" (Amazon), "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel" (Amazon), "Fleishman is in Trouble" (Hulu), "The Blacklist" (NBC) and "Blue Bloods" (CBS). Upcoming: "Your Friends and Neighbors" (Apple+), "The Night Agent" (Netflix), the independent features Motherland, and Sacrifice. Other Broadway / Theater includes Junk, Anatomy of a Suicide, You Got Older and more. Miriam has previously appeared in the Clubbed Thumb productions of Will Arbery’s Plano and Crystal Finn’s Find Me Here.
Carmen Zilles
Ali
Carmen Zilles (Ali): Off-Broadway includes: Epiphany, Fefu and her Friends, Small Mouth Sounds, Scenes from a Marriage, Fuente Ovejuna, Little Women, Chimichangas & Zoloft, Adoration of the Old Woman, 7 Minutes, No Good Things Dwell in the Flesh. Regional: Top Girls, Another Word for Beauty, The Swindlers. Two seasons of Clubbed Thumb Winterworks. TV/Film: Bel Canto, Pimp, several appearances in the Dick Wolf Cinematic Universe. Training: Yale School of Drama.
Abe Koogler writes darkly comedic plays. Many of them are about economic class, unusual jobs, and the challenges and absurdities of making a living in today’s America. Although grounded in realism, his plays often incorporate imaginary elements and heightened or musical language. Abe has won an Obie Award for Playwriting for Fulfillment Center, the Dramatist Guild’s Lanford Wilson Award, and a Weissberger Award. He earned graduate degrees in playwriting from UT-Austin and Juilliard. He has taught playwriting at Primary Stages and Bennington College. He also works as a political speechwriter.
Abe’s plays include Deep Blue Sound (Clubbed Thumb), Staff Meal (Playwrights Horizons), Aspen Ideas (Studio Theatre, postponed due to COVID), Fulfillment Center (Manhattan Theatre Club), Kill Floor (Lincoln Center Theatre), Lisa My Friend (Kitchen Dog), Blue Skies Process (Goodman Theatre), and Advance Man (UTNT). With fellow playwrights Katie Bender and Gab Reisman, he co-wrote the immersive journey plays Slip River and Church of the Passionate Cat, which both premiered in Austin. His plays have been directed by Arin Arbus, Daniel Aukin, Lila Neugebauer, Les Waters, and Will Davis, among others.
Arin Arbus has directed twelve productions for Theater for a New Audience, highlights include Denis Johnson’s Des Moines, The Merchant of Venice with John Douglas Thompson as Shylock and The Skin of Our Teeth (Obie Award). She made her Broadway debut in 2019 with Terrence McNally’s Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune (Tony nom. for Best Revival) starring Audra McDonald and Michael Shannon. She has also directed at Canadian Opera Company, Houston Grand Opera, Chicago Lyric, Woodbourne Correctional Facility in association with Rehabilitation Through the Arts, and at Ristona Refugee Camp for The Campfire Project.
dots is a multi-disciplinary design collective creating environments for theater, film, commercials, and immersive experiences. Hailing from Colombia, South Africa, and Japan, we are Santiago Orjuela-Laverde, Andrew Moerdyk, and Kimie Nishikawa. As collaborators, we believe that the whole is greater than the sum of its individual parts. Recent credits: Grief Hotel (Clubbed Thumb), Oh, Mary! (Broadway, The Lucille Lortel Theater), Romeo + Juliet (Broadway), Appropriate (2nd Stage, Broadway, Tony Award Nomination), Enemy of the People (Broadway, Tony Award Nomination), The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window (Broadway, BAM), Dark Disabled Stories (The Public Theater), Public Obscenities (Soho Rep, NAATCO, Drama Desk nomination), Kate Berlant is KATE (Connelly Theater), You Will Get Sick (Roundabout Theater, Lucille Lortel nomination). Obie Award for Sustained Artistic Achievement.
Emily Rebholz. Broadway: Jagged Little Pill (Tony nomination); Frankie and Johnny in the Claire de Lune; Gettin’ the Band Back Together; Indecent; Dear Evan Hansen; Oh, Hello on Broadway; If/Then; Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson. Off-Broadway includes Becky Nurse of Salem; Nantucket Sleigh Ride; Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike; The Who & The What, Slowgirl, Clay (LCT); The Merchant of Venice, The Winter's Tale (TFANA); The Low Road (The Public, Henry Hewes Award); Mary Jane (NYTW); Twelfth Night (CSC); Brigadoon (City Center Encores!); and The Robber Bridegroom (Roundabout). Education: MFA, Yale University.
Isabella Byrd. Clubbed Thumb: PLANO, Find Me Here, Work Hard…. Select credits: Romeo + Juliet, Cabaret, Enemy of the People (Broadway), Infinite Life (Atlantic), Sanctuary City, Light Shining in Buckinghamshire (NYTW), Heroes of the Fourth Turning, Corsicana (Playwrights Horizons), Epiphany (LCT), Primary Trust (Roundabout). Cabaret (West End, Olivier nom.) Awards: two Tony Award Nominations, Lucille Lortel, Henry Hewes, Obies. Proud USA829 member and pay equity advocate. www.isabellabyrd.design
Mikaal Sulaiman. Broadway: The Roommate, Enemy of the People, Doubt, Thanksgiving Play, Fat Ham, Death of a Salesman, Cost of Living, Macbeth, Thoughts of a Colored Man. Off-Broadway: pray (Ars Nova), Primary Trust (Roundabout), On Sugarland (NYTW), Sanctuary City (NYTW), Fairview (Soho Rep), Underground Railroad Game (Ars Nova) among others. Awards: Herb Alpert nom, Tony Award nom, Drama Desk nom, Obie Award(s), Creative Capital Award, Henry Hewes Award(s), Audelco Award, and CTG Sherwood Award. www.mikaal.com
Clubbed Thumb commissions, develops, and produces funny, strange, and provocative new plays by living American writers. Clubbed Thumb is a groundbreaker, with a precise curatorial vision and a remarkable track record for launching artists’ careers; and an incubator, nurturing plays, collaborations, and above all artists, through thoughtfully deployed resources, opportunities, mentorship, and hospitality. Since its founding in 1996, the company has presented over 100 productions, including the Tony-nominated and multi-award-winning What the Constitution Means to Me, which originated in Summerworks 2017.